Lisa Alther

“If this was adulthood, the only improvement she could detect in her situation was that now she could eat dessert without eating her vegetables.”

“Whatever I experienced in the world that I didn't understand I'd invent a story and workout my understanding of something through the story.”

“I always thought it was a question of achieving some permanent state of tranquillity ... but it's not. It's more like learning to surf. The waves keep rolling in, each different from the last, and you have to ride them, instead of getting pounded to bits.”

“no pain was permanent, and no loss was real. That even though people treated each other abominably, even though they left, even though you let them go, even though you never laid eyes on them again, this fugue that linked you continued, whether you liked it or not.”

“I happen to feel that the degree of a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the same topic.”